Page 66 of Bratva Queen

“Uh-oh,” he muttered.

“But he didn’t mention how similar you look. It was easy for me to spot you.”

“Oh, God.” He rolled his eyes and took my bag from me. “We are nothing alike, I can tell you that now.”

“I believe you.”

At his surprisingly large house—for a bachelor, anyway—he settled me into the wing that he said was Alek’s while he lived here. It was perfect, my own space with my own key. It was like Alek had turned it into his own house, one room a lounge with TV, another his office, then of course the main bedroom and, soon enough, I turned the fourth room into Maxim’s bedroom. It felt right, like Alek existed there even when he wasn’t.

I immediately set myself to work. Before I left Moscow, Alek and I sat down to discuss the future. We agreed that we would find a way to bury Stepan, no matter how long it took. We just had to be crafty about it.

“Don’t trust Gregori, no matter what,” he told me. “He might seem friendly now, but he’s still got that selfishness in him, he’ll still fuck anyone over if it will get him what he wants.”

So, I used Alek’s old office and began my plans. I contacted a man named Igor from a list Alek gave me. I was never to give my true name to anyone, but I was free to do business under a false name. Alek tried to talk me out of it; he didn’t want me involved in the bratva world at all, in fear it might not only alert Stepan that I was alive but also that it might, very easily, take my life.

All I did was slide my fingers across Alek’s cheek and say, “Baby, I’ve seen enough, and I’ve been through enough to handle this world. Nothing is going to stop me from finding a way to have Stepan killed, so I can get my sons back.”

With a scar across my neck and a baby in one arm, I slowly became the queen I was always meant to be.

* * *

“Starting with Igor,I developed a drug peddling ring of my own. And that wasn’t just for the money, of course, but to get closer to Stepan’s business, if I could beat him at his own game, I could weaken him.”

I looked around the table, all of my sons waited with expressionless faces for me to continue.

“I never met with anyone myself, not while Stepan was still alive. I used Igor, with my scarf wrapped around my neck, hiding my scar. He was the head of the team of men on my payroll and handled the distribution of the drugs.”

“Your supplier was Martin,” Dmitry said, his eyes narrowing in question. He knew the answer, he’d spoken with Martin not too long ago in Saint Petersburg when he was looking for me.

“Yes. He was still young back when Aleksei found him and turned him into the drug lord you know him as. You see, when Stepan sent Aleksei to Saint Petersburg it was to set up a new bratva family there, under the Koslov umbrella, and begin making profits on drugs without the transport costs. It was Aleksei who found Martin through the street runner boys he used, one of them being Lev. He struck a deal and soon enough… Martin was a rich man. An associate of the Koslov bratva ring, their main supplier.”

“So, you offered him better prices,” Misha said, nodding his head, his cool mind immediately knowing what my plan would have been.

“Yes.”

“Where did you get the money?”

“Well… There were two revenue streams. First, I had Aleksei not only stealing from Stepan and channeling it to me,” All four of them snickered at that, Dmitry releasing an uncharacteristic laugh. “But also collecting the stacks of cash I’d hidden around the house during my years there. It got me set up. But when I needed to start cleaning my own profits I began a few shell companies, jewelry stores, specifically, worked quite well. Once Gregori realized what I was doing, he sent a queue of clients my way.”

“But I thought you couldn’t trust Gregori?” Maxim asked. He was still sour about the fact that his uncle had fooled him. No doubt he was angry with me for not listening to Aleksei. The truth was, I liked living in the Chernoff home. It kept me close to Aleksei in spirit and it was Maxim’s inheritance, since Gregori fathered no children that we knew of.

“I didn’t. I just dealt with new clients that happened to use him to cook their books. Since they were all rich men with wives and mistresses, the large payments for diamonds that didn’t actually exist were easier for Greg to hide,” I said this for the Koslov boys’ benefit. Maxim already knew the workings of my and Gregori’s businesses.

“Slowly but surely, I infiltrated Stepan’s bratva ring. I stole his men by offering better salaries and benefits. With double agents in the Koslov ring, I made sure to buy out Martin’s supply before they could. It nearly crippled his business.”

Chapter27

Aleksei

Ten Years Later

Iwas walking through the entry hall at the Koslov house when Stepan arrived home, high as a kite and stinking of booze. With the cocaine giving him energy, he approached me.

“Alek!” His eyes were red as thed’yavol, and he spoke faster than usual. I couldn’t believe he’d let this drug get the best of him. Couldn’t he see that it made him look weak? He lost all pretense of a cool demeanor when he was high. “We’ve got business to deal with, and this time, I’m handling it myself.”

“What do you mean?”

He leaned in with a wicked smile, “I feel like getting my hands dirty for once. It’s been too long since I had blood dripping from these fingers.”

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